A man has been arrested and accused of exposing himself to multiple people in the Ballston area.
A 40-year-old Arlington resident was arrested on indecent exposure charges Tuesday night. The arrest follows a number of such flashing incidents in Arlington over the past month, though it’s unclear if the past incidents are in any way connected with this latest one.
More from this week’s Arlington County Police Department crime report:
INDECENT EXPOSURE, 2017-06270262, 4700 block of Fairfax Drive. At approximately 10:00 p.m. on June 27, officers responded to the report of an exposure. Upon arrival, it was determined a male subject exposed himself to several victims. Officers located the subject in the area and took him into custody. Selemon Takele, 40, of Arlington VA, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure.
The rest of the past week’s crime report highlights, including some that we’ve already reported, after the jump.
County Board chair Jay Fisette gives the State of the County address
More than 100 attendees listened to Fisette’s final address before he retires
In his final State of the County address before he retires at year’s end, Arlington County Board chair Jay Fisette said he is proudest of providing stable leadership during the county’s transformation.
Fisette, in his fifth annual address before the Arlington Chamber of Commerce as chair since coming onto the Board in 1998, said he believes his legacy will be the way Arlington has become more urbanized and expanded its population while staying true to its values.
“For me, it would be helping to guide the 20-year transformation of the community into an urban success story that we are,” he said. “Change is hard, and doing that in a way that has resulted in a community that’s a model in so many areas of public life, while at the same time protecting the connectedness and the compassion of a small town. There are a lot of things that have to happen to make that kind of recipe work.”
In his remarks before more than 100 business leaders, elected officials and other attendees Wednesday morning, Fisette touted various successes in his tenure as the current Board’s longest serving member.
He noted the 9.5 million square feet in new office space and 2.5 million square feet in new retail space, 2,700 additional hotel rooms, more than 29,000 new homes and other indicators, all while the unemployment rate stayed largely consistent at 2.5 percent, among the lowest in Virginia.
“In short, the state of the county is really good,” Fisette said. “In my view, Arlington works.”
But, Fisette said, Arlington faces numerous challenges, including on affordable housing, Arlington Public Schools capacity and an 18 percent office vacancy rate among others. He said the county has faced problems on his watch, like the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the loss of thousands of jobs through Base Realignment and Closure, but has always come through.
And despite those challenges, Fisette said the relationship between the business community and the county government remains strong, “[e]ven when our relationship is one where we don’t agree,” like the recent spat between the Chamber and Board over proposed changes to the towing ordinance.
Fisette had 10 recommendations for county leaders, after the jump:
Columbia Pike Premium Transit Network presentation slide
County Board vice chair Katie Cristol
County Board member John Vihstadt
County Board member Christian Dorsey
County Board member Libby Garvey
County transit bureau chief Lynn Rivers
County transportation director Dennis Leach
(Updated at 11:25 a.m.) Dedicated lanes look unlikely for the proposed “Premium Transit Network” along Columbia Pike, which is set to open next summer after delays.
Staff from the county’s Department of Environmental Services studied the feasibility of dedicated lanes along the Pike, but at a work session on Tuesday said they would likely not work.
Transportation director Dennis Leach described Columbia Pike as a “challenging corridor” for dedicated lanes and priority traffic signals for buses, like the Transitway between the Braddock Road and Pentagon City Metro stations. He said that the configuration of the road would not work for dedicated lanes, while they may also violate form based code that regulates development on Columbia Pike to make the area more walkable.
“There are no easy solutions. there are lots of tradeoffs, and some options would make things far worse,” Leach said. He added that giving traffic signal priority to buses might cause problems at some cross streets with Columbia Pike, especially those with heavy traffic.
Board members said they would like to see further study, and that such plans should not be ruled out even if in just one area of the Pike if it provides a benefit.
But the buses could be in for a unique look like the Transitway, which would mark them as separate from the other Metrobus and ART services along the Pike. Staff recommended pursuing a distinctive bus appearance, while using Metro’s standard stock of buses rather than ones powered purely by electricity or hydrogen due to cost.
Arlington’s buses could also be set for more advertising after staff issued a Request for Information last week. Responses are due from vendors by July 13 as staff gathers information about what could be done to generate additional transit revenue.
A separate suggestion by the Board to have buses arrive every six minutes on the Pike even in off-peak hours comes with a heavy price tag, as DES staff said it would cost an extra $2.5 million and require buying another bus. Staff also said demand might not be enough to help defray those costs.
But Board members said providing more service could help encourage more people to take the bus. Vice chair Katie Cristol said the idea is “also trying to induce demand,” especially when considering statistics provided by staff that show many bus riders in the area go to points along the Pike rather than beyond it.
“The objective here is not simply to meet current demand, but to create a transit system in which people can go to their bus stop, get on their bus and know they will be able to ride to where they want to go at some point,” Cristol said.
Board chair Jay Fisette agreed, noting that there is an “expectation” among Columbia Pike residents that transit improve. When the proposed streetcar was cancelled in 2014, Board members promised a system that would be just as good, if not better.
Cristol agreed, and asked why the county needed to wait for increased demand, or could “make a stretch, or place a bet?”
The new bus service is on track to open next summer. The county will engage in meetings with Fairfax County on the project, and is set to submit a version of it to WMATA’s Board of Directors to vote on ahead of finalizing a service plan later this year.
Also delayed but moving forward: the construction of 23 “premium transit stations,” along the Pike. The successor to the nixed $1 million “Super Stop,” the new stations will be factory assembled to save money.
The county will be issuing a Request for Proposals for the stations later this year, according to a staff presentation, with the goal of wrapping up installation by the second quarter of 2021 in coordination with multimodal improvements along the Pike.
APS Tells Staff to Stop Paying Sales Tax — As a public institution Arlington Public Schools is exempt from paying sales tax, but the school system’s internal auditor has found that some staff members have been placing orders for APS via Amazon without sales tax exempted. APS has since requested sales tax refunds for those orders. [InsideNova]
Arlington Resident Cited for Boating Incident — An Arlington man has been cited for operating a vessel while impaired after his 28-foot boat ran aground off the eastern shore of Maryland, south of Ocean City. [WMDT]
Notable Rivercrest Property Sold — A home and an adjacent vacant lot have been sold near the intersection of Military Road and N. Glebe Road in the Rivercrest neighborhood. The lot was the site of a “national debate over property rights and conformity,” when in 1969 an architect started to build a custom home on the lot but was ultimately stopped after a legal challenge by neighbors, who thought the home was ugly and would not “retain the very pleasant, beautiful nature of Rivercrest.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Flipper: Selling Home to the County Was a Pain — A real estate investor has penned a piece for the Post in which he recounts the sale of one of his properties to Arlington County. The sale, of a house near Fire Station 8, was “neither lucrative nor convenient” and was more trouble than it was worth, he writes. However, the owner of a run-down property next to his received a much better price by holding out, the piece suggests. [Washington Post]
Mouthwash on Clarendon Bus Stop — Updating the saga of the stick of deodorant atop a Clarendon bus stop, the deodorant has now been joined by an errant bottle of Listerine mouthwash. [ARLnow]
(Updated 5:35 p.m.) A man was rescued by Arlington County firefighters after being pinned under a collapsed wall at a house on Old Dominion Drive this afternoon.
Crews responded around 2 p.m. Tuesday to a home on the 4700 block of Old Dominion Drive, where the man was pinned below his waist by a two-ton concrete slab. According to scanner traffic, he had been working on the wall when it gave way.
The man was conscious and being tended to by medics while a technical rescue team shored up the wall and removed the collapsed material. The man was extricated at approximately 2:55 p.m. and transported to the hospital.
Police closed Old Dominion Drive in both directions between Lee Highway and 23rd Street N. due to the emergency response. The road reopened shortly after 4 p.m.
According to scanner traffic, investigators from the police as well as the the state occupational safety agency will inspect the incident site.
Theodore Roosevelt Island closed yesterday for tree removal
The closures could last up to three weeks
Among the changes could be a move away from ash trees, some of which were destroyed this year
Roosevelt Island (photo via Google Maps)
Theodore Roosevelt Island closed for up to three weeks starting Monday while crews remove diseased trees from the nearby trails.
The National Park Service said the closures, which began yesterday, come after a survey found damage from the invasive emerald ash borer.
Sections of the island’s trails will reopen on a rolling basis as diseased trees are removed. NPS announced last week the island would close as the storms that hit the area could have brought down some of the diseased trees.
From a National Park Service press release:
Starting Monday, June 26, 2017, Theodore Roosevelt Island will be closed for the removal of diseased trees from along the maintained trails. As diseased trees are removed from sections of maintained trails, those sections will be reopened. Work is weather dependent and should last about three weeks.
A recent tree survey on Theodore Roosevelt Island found extensive damage to trees along the island’s trails from the invasive and deadly emerald ash borer. To facilitate the removal of these hazardous trees and reopen sections of the island more quickly, contracted services as well as park staff, will be working throughout the island.
Theodore Roosevelt Island is one of many parks in the Greater Washington Area hit hard by emerald ash borer. The island has many ash trees throughout its 88 acres that have been infected with the exotic beetle. The pest is highly destructive, killing ash trees within two to three years once infected. Dead ash trees rapidly become dry, brittle and hazardous. There is no known cure; once a tree is infected, it will die. Emerald ash borer is almost always fatal.
We are now more than 10 years into the emerald ash borer invasion of the National Capital Region. White ash was the tenth most common tree species in the region based on data collected between 2006 and 2009. In some areas of the region, the number of white ash trees decrease by a quarter between 2009 and 2016.
Rangers remind you to that you can do your part! To help prevent the spread of emerald ash borer and other pests, buy firewood where you intend to burn it, and do not take firewood or logs from home when you travel. Invasive species like the emerald ash borer cost the United States billions of dollars in damages every year.
NRECA Tree Planting Ceremony — In honor of its 75th anniversary, yesterday the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association planted a tree next to its Ballston headquarters using soil collected from hundreds of its 900 electric co-op members. [Facebook]
SoberRide Active for July 4 — The regional SoberRide program will be offering free Lyft rides up to $15 each on the Fourth of July, to help get impaired drivers off the road. Between 7 p.m. on July 4 and 2 a.m. on July 5, Lyft users can use the promo code “SOBERJULY4” to get a free ride up to $15 or a $15 discount on a more expensive ride. [Washington Regional Alcohol Program]
Work on DCA Project Starting Soon — A $1 billion improvement project for Reagan National Airport is set to kick off soon, with construction of new security checkpoints for terminals B and C. That construction is expected to wrap up in 2020, while construction of a new commuter concourse is expected to conclude in 2021. [Washington Business Journal, Washington Business Journal]
Arlington Ridge Mansion to Be Auctioned — A 6 bedroom, 7 bath home in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood, built in 2015 and valued at $3.7 million, is being auctioned next month. [Patch]
View of ART bus and SUV from the home both nearly crashed into
View of ART bus and SUV from the home both nearly crashed into
(Updated at 7:45 p.m.) Police and firefighters are on scene of a crash involving an Arlington Transit bus and an SUV in the Nauck neighborhood.
The crash happened around 6:15 p.m. Monday at the intersection of S. Nelson Street and 22nd Street S. Neighbors have been told that the bus somehow lost power heading up the steep hill on 22nd Street and began rolling backward, striking the parked SUV, knocking down utility lines and a light pole, and spinning into the yard of a home on the corner.
Several passengers were on board the bus at the time of the crash. One person, believed to be a passenger on the bus, suffered non-life-threatening facial injuries.
Police and ART officials were on scene taking photos and investigating the crash. A large wrecker later arrived to remove the bus from the yard.
The residents of the house the vehicles nearly slid into were at home at the time of the crash. Jill Brown said she and her husband were 10 feet from the wall closest to the collision.
“I heard the impact from the bus hitting my neighbor’s car, which was parked on the street when the bus slid into it,” Brown said. “I stood up, ran over and said to my husband, ‘Oh my God there’s a bus in the yard, call 911.’ And I ran out and… ran around the bus and made sure people were getting off the bus.”
“I saw one person go away in an ambulance, everyone else just seemed pretty shook up,” she said.
Dozens of wheelie-popping dirt bike and ATV riders rolled through Crystal City on Route 1 last night.
The convoy of “SundayFun Day” riders rumbled down Route 1 around 8 p.m., stopping at a nearby gas station, according to the Arlington County Police Department. Police responded to the scene but no arrests were made.
“At approximately 8:09 p.m. on June 25, the Emergency Communication Center received reports that approximately 30-40 dirt bikes and ATVs were at the gas station located in the 2300 block of Jefferson Davis Highway,” said ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage. “Officers were dispatched to the area but the group exited Arlington County on Route 1 prior to police arrival.”
The riders also were spotted Sunday in various parts of D.C., including downtown. The Metropolitan Police Department has reportedly stepped up arrests in response to the repeated group rides, which police call “extremely dangerous to pedestrians and other motorists.”
This is at least the fourth reported large dirt bike and ATV ride through Arlington since 2015.
A man exposed himself to a woman in the Courthouse area Friday evening, according to Arlington County Police.
It’s the fourth such incident in the Rosslyn and Courthouse areas over the past month or so, though the suspect description differs from that of previous flashing incidents.
More from today’s daily ACPD crime report:
INDECENT EXPOSURE, 2017-06230261, 2000 block of Clarendon Boulevard. At approximately 5:00 p.m. on June 23, officers responded to the report of an indecent exposure. Upon arrival, it was determined an unknown male subject exposed himself to a female victim. The male subject then fled the scene on foot. The subject is described as a black male, approximately 5’7″ – 6’0″ tall with a thin build. He was wearing a gray, pull-over hoodie and blue shorts. The investigation is ongoing.
Metro Changes in Effect — As of Sunday, the Metrorail system is now operating less frequently, with reduced hours and higher fares. [WMATA, WTOP, Greater Greater Washington]
Home Demolition Stats — So far in 2017, there have been 66 demolition permits for single-family homes applied for in Arlington, according to the group Preservation Arlington. Twenty-two permits were applied for in May alone. [Preservation Arlington]
Linden Combining With Melwood — Arlington-based Linden Resources is linking up with Maryland-based Melwood “to create one of the largest regionally focused nonprofits with more than $100 million in joint revenue.” The organizations provide job opportunities for people with disabilities. [Washington Business Journal]
B&E’s Ranked Among Best Eats — Bob and Edith’s Diner on Columbia Pike (and in Crystal City) has been named the best 24-hour restaurant in Virginia by Cosmopolitan Magazine. [Cosmopolitan, Patch]
Best of Ballston Awards — Cybraics, a company focused on fighting cybercrime, won the Innovation Award at the inaugural Best of Ballston Awards last week. [Ballston BID]
A man has been arrested and accused of exposing himself to multiple people in the Ballston area.
